HOCKEY - Belgian gain is North's big loss

Northland Women's Hockey team will have to cope without the talents of star striker Charlotte Harrison and top defender Rhonda Rowsell for this year's National Hockey League - with the pair about to leave the country to take up lucrative contracts to play for the same club in Belgium.
Harrison, who was controversially left out of the Black Sticks' final 16 to attend the Olympics recently, will make up for her disappointment by taking up a contract with Belgium first-division side Braxgata, based in the northern city of Boom.
"I've got quite a good contract set-up so it should be quite exciting. I'll be getting paid a pretty good amount, so hopefully I'll be saving money and go travelling and that sort of thing," the striker said.
Both players will leave the country on August 20, in time for the start of the season in early September.
The European competition doesn't finish until May but Harrison said the contract includes a return trip to New Zealand for the Christmas break.
"After Christmas we go into the national league and if we do well in that then we get to play in the Euro-League, which would be pretty cool. But we'll have to see how it goes," she said.
Rowsell said the club needed a striker and a defender, and it was a win-win situation for them both.
"The standard of hockey will be pretty decent over there and it will be good for my game."
Rowsell has been one of the best defenders in the NHL over the past two seasons but has been constantly overlooked by the Black Sticks. She sees playing in Europe as a chance to push her case for national selection, with several retirements expected in the Black Sticks after Beijing.
She was disappointed to miss NHL this year but said the opportunity was too good to pass up. "Plus we get to do our OE at the same time and get paid," Rowsell said.
Harrison has been confirmed as one of two standby players, who will be on-call to travel to Beijing as injury cover for the Black Sticks in Beijing.
"If anyone is injured I'll probably get the call to go over but hopefully that doesn't happen. I wouldn't want anyone to get injured and miss out."
The loss of the pair will be devastating for the Northland team, which is still without a coach just two months before the 2008 NHL competition in Auckland in September.
Harrison's absence will be all the more keenly felt after Northland's top scorer in last year's competition, Anna Thorpe, was diagnosed with an illness that could see her miss the tournament.